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History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c35.s6: 5 Keralas of Travancore.

History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c35.s6

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English

5 Keralas of Travancore.

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The history of Kerala or Malabar and Travancore during this sub-period has been patiently found out and laid before the reader by P. Sunder Pillai, M. A. in I. A. XXIV (pp. 249-257) and we make no apology for giving from it select facts here. Kerala or Cherala means hilly country and included Malabar in the north and Travancore in the south, on the west coast of Southern India. The Kongu land is sometimes included in it viz. the present districts of Salem and Tinnevelly but not naturally. In this corner of the south, as in the Himalayas in the north, the oldest Dravidian and Aryan races with their institutions and manners and religion are preserved yet as in a fossil form, from the Kanikar or hillman to the Nambudri the highest type of Aryan Brahmin (to which clan the famous Śankarāchārya belonged ). Language, ethnology, social condition and marriage customs of this part are, therefore, worth studying, being untampered by any revolutions within or invasions without. (But this land of Nambudri Brahmins and Nair (Nāgara) Kshatriyas sent out a religious invasion under Śankara which subjugated the whole of India). The history of Kerala goes back to the days of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa like that of the Eastern coast belonging to the Pāṇḍyas with whom they are always allied in ancient Sanskrit works.

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The present Travancore ruling dynasty is very old and official records give 35 generations to the present ruler from 1335 A. D. We have, therefore, to find the history of this dynasty before this period from inscriptions and Mr. Pillai has succeeded in evolving a tolerably clear account. It may be stated first that the alphabet in Travancore is different from the Sanskrit alphabet and is called Vattelatte or Chera-Pāṇḍya and even the era of Travancore is distinct being called Kollam era, the first year of which corresponds to 825 A. D. The first king of Travancore whose name is mentioned in a stone record is Vira Keralvarman. His date is 1135 A.D. He was a feudatory of Rājendra Chola in whose name and honour a Mahādeva temple was built. Venad or Travancore appears at this time to be a well-governed country paying taxes in kind and money. Vira Keralav. seems to be the first important king who secured power from Chola and Chālukya supremacy. He is mentioned in another inscription dated 1144 A. D. The government of the country included village organisations and temple authorities which shared power in the civil government.

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Stone inscriptions dated 1161, 1173 and 1180 A. D. mention the next kings Ravivarman, who ruled over Travancore including the southernmost districts independently, the Cholas having declined in power after Rājendra, Vira Udayamārtandvarman and Āditayarāma. Mr. Pillai thinks that the last king extended his sway northward by absorbing Kūpadeśam or country of Kūpakas, also a part of Malabār. Keralavarman II (Trivadi) is mentioned in a book and in a stone record dated 1193 A. D. and Virarāmavarman Tiravadi in a detailed inscription dated May 1196 A. D., which speaks of a body of six hundred who supervised the working of the temples and of chieftainships into which the kingdom was divided. This interesting detail shows that the administration of the state was chiefly in the hands of the peoples' representatives, a curious relic of ancient Vedic times. Next come Virarāmakeralvarman and Vira Ravivarman whose long document dated 1235 shows the nature of the land revenue system in their days. The capital was Trivendram even in those days.

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IMP. FEU. KINGDOMS OF SOUTHERN INDIA-P. II

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